Casting ingots



' Mar. 3, 1925. 1,528,604

R. CLARK CASTING INGOTS Filed Aug. 4, 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR R. CLARK Mar. 3, 1925.

d Aug. 4, 1922 mold.

PATENT OF 1,528,604 FICEL ROBERT CLARK, OF'MONONGAHELA, PENNSYLVANIA.

CASTING- INGOTS.

Application flied August 4, 1922,. Seria1 No. 579,614.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that'I, ROBERT CLARK, a citizen of the United States, residing in M0- nongahela, in the county of Washington and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Casting Ingots,

.of which the following is a full, clear, and

exact description. The present invention relates to casting ingots, and more particularly to casting them in ingot molds in which the metal will so solidify as to eliminate piping and segregation from the ingot.

In the making of 'iron and steel ingots, considerable difliculty has always been encountered 'in so-called pipin and segregation. To prevent piping an segregation I.

provide an ingot mold having its lower portion madeout of a relatively good heat conducting material, and its upper portion of a relatively poor heat conducting material so that the bottom of the ingot will freeze relatively rapidly while the top of the ingot is maintained in" a molten condition. The ingot mold is preferably horizontal and is split so that its upper and lower halves may be separated to permit the removal of the ingot. In such 'form, the metal is poured into one end of the in ot mold and vent openings are ,provided .a ong the top of the In the drawings which illustrate the pre- I ferred embodiment of the inventiog Figure 1 is a ,plan view showing the arrangement 'offour of my ingot molds Figure 2 is a vertical section along the line II,II of Figure 1; 5

Figure 3 is a detail'view of one of the clamps for holding the two halves of the ingot mold together during the pouring;

. Figure 4 is a'top plan view of one of the ingot molds;

Figure 5 is a side elevation. of one of the ingot molds c Figure 6 1s a plan view of the lower half of an ingot mold;

Figure 7 is an end elevation of the ope end of one of the ingot molds; and

Fi re 8 is a vertical section along the line III-VIII of Figure 5.

. lower portion ismade of. a re atively good ing of four ingot molds.

uting block 13 has an upper opemng 14 into In the illustrated embodiment of the in-' to rapidly chill at the bottom of the ingot.

The upper half of the ingot mold is made in two parts, 3 and 3 and is composed of some relatively poor heat conducting material, such, for example, as the graphite composition used for making crucible pots. This maintains the upper part of the ingot in a molten condition while the ingot is freezing from thebottom, and thus prevents piping and segregation.

The upper part of the mold is provided with vent openings 6 to allow the escape of gasesfrom the metal and into which'any slag or segregated portions of the metal may rise, if desired, to form a fin, which may be chipped from the ingot. Since the two halves '3 and 3 of the upper portion are separable along. a central dividing line passing through the vents 6, the presence of this fin will not hinder the removal of the mold from the ingot.

The two halves of the ingot fit together, as shown in Figures 7 and 8, the lower or. cast iron halfhaving a raisedrim 7 within which the foot '8 of the graphite upper portion fits so as to maintain the two halves in alinenient. The two halves are clamped together during the pouring operation by clamping bands 9, one of which is illus trated in detail in Figure 3. The lower portion of the ingot mold has square supportin legs 10.

The mold cavity 11 is illustrated as a cavity of square cross section, the square being set diagonally so as to permit the two halves of'the split ingot mold to be readily separated and remove the ingot. The cavity 11 is comparatively long. The ingot n'iolds are preferably arranged horizontally, and the metal is poured in through the open end 12. K

"The ihgot molds may be poured singly or in multiple. In Figures 1 and 2 I have illustrated a device for pouring the ingots in multiple, illustrated as applied to the pour- A hollow distribwhich the metal ,is poured, and horizontal openings 15 which register with the open ends 12 of the four ingot molds. The ingot molds are placed on a pouring floor, and sand is piled around them to hold them in place, and around the joint between the pouring block 13 and'the molds. Other arrangements may be employed for pouring the molds.

It is preferred to employ horizontal ingot molds in which the mold cavity has a considerably greater length than height. The freezing will take place along the entire length of the ingot, while the top of the ingot is maintained molten along its entire length. The gases or impurities which cause piping or segregation have but a com paratively short distance to travel from the bottom of the ingot to the vents along the top, and thus the long interior pipe which occurs in ingots which are poured vertically, can be entirely avoided. Moreover, the nonconducting upper half 3 of the ingot will maintain the top of the ingot molten for a considerable period of time and give ample opportunity for the gases to escape or 1mpurities to rise to the top, as the freezing progresses through the ingot from the bottom half or chill 4.

\Vhile the ingot molds may be used for making ingots of various metals or irons and steels. they are particularly applicable to the making of ingots of high speed or alloy steels, in which piping and segregation are particularly hard to avoid in the usual methods of casting.

The present invention is not limited to its illustrated embodiment, but may be otherwise embodied within the scope of the following claims.

I claim: Y

1. In the method of casting ingots to prevent piping, the step of casting the ingot in substantially a horizontal position, cooling the ingot from the bottom thereof toward the top to force the impurities along the LOP of the ingot and forming a rib along a portion of the top of the casting substantially parallel with the axis of the ingot and into which the impurities are forced by the upwardly cooling of the metal in the ingot, substantially as described.

2. In the method of casting ingotsof substantially rectangular cross section, to prevent piping, the step of casting an ingot with its axisin a substantiall horizontal plane with two of its corners in a vertical plane extending through the axis, chilling the ingot from the bottom corner toward the to corner and forming a longitudinally exten ing rib alon a portion of the length of the top corner, into which the impurities are forced by the upward cooling, substantially as described.

3. In the method of casting. ingots of substantially rectangular cross-section, to prewhich was forced therein during the cooling of the ingot, substantially as described.

5. A cast ingot of general rectangular cross-section having a rib extending along one of its corners substantially parallel to the axis of the ingot, into which the slag from the metal of the ingot passed during the cooling of the ingot, substantially as described.

6. An ingot mold having a separable upper portion of relatively poor heat conducting material and a lower portion of relative good heat conducting material, the part between the portions being parallel to the axis of the mold, there being a rib forming opening in the upper mold portion, for forming a rib along the side of the ingot of less thickness than the shortest diameter of the ingot, and pouring means metal into one end of the mold and form a gate whose top is above the flange forming portion of the mold, substantially as described.

7. An ingot mold for casting ingots of general rectangular cross-section, having an upper portion formed of two members of relatively low heat conducting material and a lower portion of relatively high heat conducting material, the part between the upper and lower portions being in a horizontal plane extending through two of the corner forming portions of the mold and the axis of the mold, while the part between the two upper portions is in a plane extending through the other two corner forming portions of the mold, there being a rib forming recess between the two members of the top mold portion, and a runner associated with an open end of the mold for conducting the metal in a horizontal manner into the mold, substantially as described.

8. A device for casting ingots substantially square in cross-section, comprising a plurality of ingot molds extending in a radial direction from a common center with their axes in a horizontal plane and having closed outer ends, two of the corner forming portions of each mold lying in the plane of the axes of the molds, each mold having a lower portion of relatively high heat conducting material and an upper portion of relatively low heat conducting material, the upper portion of each mold being formed of two members arted in planes extending through the other corner forming portions for pouring the hot of the molds, rib forming portions between the upper members of each mold, for forming longitudinal ribs along the top corners of the ingots, and a runner in the center of the device having an 0 ening communicating with the open end 0 each mold, substantially as described.

9. An ingot mold having an upper portion of relatively ,poor heat conducting material anda lower portion of relatively good heat 1 Intestimony whereof I have hereunto "set my hand;

' r ROBERT CLARK. 

